Sunday, December 13, 2009

Now Hear This

If you are within reach of today's New York Times (that would be today, Sunday, 12/13), please go to Page 47 and read the obituary of a gentleman named Giorgio Carbone, Prince Giorgio I of Seborga (no, nobody else has ever heard of it either, including me, and I'm good at this sort of thing), otherwise known as His Tremendousness. I am not making this up.

Seems Prince Giorgio lives in a bit of Italy near the Italian Riviera, and through a bit of highly doubtful historical research, discovered that his small patch of Italy was at some point a principality, which he promptly resurrected, managing to get himself elected as Prince. The article is absolutely hilarious, oddly enough for an American obituary...the English write wonderful obits all the time, but Americans are evidently too concerned with political correctness. This one, however, is the most fun I've had in years.

By the by, Prince Giorgio never married (he's quoted as saying there were too many women to choose from), so unless what seems to be the one square mile occupied by his more or less mythical principality holds another wonderful lunatic, he will remain its only Prince.

One sincerely hopes that His Tremendousness sounds better in Italian, because in English it sounds like either a professional wrestler or a rap star. Or a sumo wrestler, for that matter.

Ah, well. back to Christmas prep!

Love, Wendy

1 comment:

SaintTigerlily said...

Excellent book: http://www.amazon.com/Dead-Beat-Perverse-Pleasures-Obituaries/dp/0060758759.

Have you heard of it?


An obit reader's dream.